Someone asked me while I was traveling in Antarctica, "So...are you having the greatest time ever?"
Of course I said yes, and I was having a great time-beauty, adventure, and purpose all rolled into one delightful trip. But as time went on a part of me shattered into a million tiny pieces every time the glacier sprayed ice into the harbor or an elephant seal scream or a whale breeched earth and sky. In the groaning of the glacier, in the eye of the whale-I sensed something precious slipping away. Like a loved one you want to call home, but wait too long and when you speak, she is too far away to hear you.
One scientist said, "The question is not whether the earth will survive." He paused and looked into my eyes. "The question is," he said, "have we humans overplayed our hand?" When I think of acceptance, compassion, and hope all bundled up into one, I will forever see his brilliant blue eyes.
Antarctica is big-vast spaces covered in white. White is an expansive color, so the emptiness grows out of proportion even to itself. We haven't colonized the place to any grand degree, and much of life in Antarctica goes on under the sea.
From the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado, on a clear day you can see for miles. If you look at the surface of the ocean-which can plunge down for miles before water meets earth-you might see a few hundred feet on a clear day. The deepest I saw (I know because we were measuring turbidity) was 65 feet. I felt so small. Small and helpless.
I am one person living in a world occupied by billions. Even if I went to bed at dusk and got up with sun, eliminated plastic from my life, stopped using gasoline, turned down the heat and shivered all winter, nothing would change. If I could do everything-and I know I can't-what difference would it make?
A friend helped me to see that everything hangs in the balance of one billion divided by one. It's not one person doing one billion things-that's impossible, almost comical to imagine. But one billion people making one small change gives me shivers.
Why does that seem so much more possible? I think-I hope-it's because I know I can do one thing, and my friends can do one thing, and their friends can do one thing. Try and think of one person you know who can't do one small thing to help. Try and think of one person who wouldn't help in some small way, if they could, if it was barely noticeable in the everyday motions of life. I can't think of anyone like that.
Earth Hour: March 29, 2008 at 8 pm
If you feel like reading this article twice, but with a green background, you can view this post and others that take a similiar course at: www.katekeeley.blogspot.com
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Comments: 33
I promise to do my part, small that it might be, because I have to. I can't stand by and do nothing. It would be to hypocritical of me to rant and rave about pollution or how we negatively impact the planet to sit back and just watch.
Great article Kate...thank you for continuing to raise the awareness of those who might not understand what is truly at stake.
www.earthhour.org
If nothing else, the beautiful children will make you laugh until you cry or cry until you laugh...
Thank You.
thing of warming, cooling, even if there WERE no humans to mess her up...TRUE?
Or how about the chilly 17th century, where in England skaters could ice skate on the frozen Thames?
The whole issue, of warming or cooling – which was widely reported from the 1940's through the 1980's as the latest climate 'crisis' – is that we really cannot know the causes, and for every Chicken Little screaming "The Earth is warming! The Earth is warming!" There's the voice of calm and reason saying, "That may be, but the why is simply unknown."
They are looking at millions of years of climate history and saying: "We should pay attention to this." None of them said they were going to stop driving cars or give up electric lights. It was a very calm and reasonable call to think about our actions and the possible impacts.
Because I watched the movie and still thought, "Are they manipulating data?" I put the question in the most basic terms I could in relationship to my life. I asked myself: "If all the trash I make were to sit piled up in my yard, would I like that?" I also asked: "Would I want to build a house on a trash dump?" And, "Do I like waking up in the morning with my nose crusted with black soot?" My answer: No. Whatever the cause, it s clear that we make a lot of trash and pollution and--as CA points out--it just makes sense to live responsibly.
Chief Sealth said, "Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you will one night suffocate in your waste."
Whatever the ultimate cause of climate change might be, the underlying issues remain.
In response to Michael C.: I think you misread the article. I quote: "A friend helped me to see that everything hangs in the balance of one billion divided by one. It's not one person doing one billion things-that's impossible, almost comical to imagine. But one billion people making one small change gives me shivers."